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Parliament has passed the Bankers' Books Evidence Bill, 2026, replacing the Bankers' Books Evidence Act of 1891.
The Rajya Sabha cleared it by voice vote on August 10, 2026; the Lok Sabha had passed it on August 5, 2026.
The Bill gives explicit legal recognition to electronic and digital bank records as admissible evidence in court.
Its definition of bankers' books covers cloud storage, off-premises servers, backups and disaster recovery systems.
It also shields bank officials from unnecessary court summonses where the bank is not a party to the dispute.
Enacted when banks kept paper ledgers. Its purpose was to let certified copies of bank records be produced as evidence instead of hauling original ledgers into court. It did not contemplate electronic storage.
Makes the framework technology-neutral, expressly recognising records created and stored digitally, and standardising how they are certified.
The general law of evidence, which replaced the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 and likewise expanded the treatment of electronic records.
Provides the legal basis for digital and electronic signatures relied on for certification.
Part of a wider legislative exercise replacing nineteenth-century Acts with modern equivalents.
General Awareness > Banking Regulations and Recent Legislation
GS Paper II > Polity > Parliament and Legislation
General Awareness > Current Affairs > Acts and Bills
Legislation drafted so that it applies regardless of the specific technology used, avoiding the need for amendment each time technology changes.
A method of deciding a question in Parliament where members say 'Aye' or 'No' and the presiding officer determines the result by volume, without recording individual votes.
A copy of a record formally attested as accurate, which the law permits to be produced as evidence in place of the original.